Recently one of the comic strips I read regularly, Thatababy, paid tribute to the an earlier infant-themed newspaper comic: The Kewpies. That day's strip mentioned that there was once a chain of hamburger restaurants named for Kewpees (spelling varaiation due to the first proprietor's interest in a hotel chain of that name, but the likeness of the cartoon kids' was licensed for its use) numbering around 400 by the time of World War II. My enjoyment of funnies and food has inspired me to want to soon make a trip to one of the few remaining Kewpee eateries, the closest being a bit less than 100 miles from my home. Reviews I've read of the place indicate the grub's worth the trip. But, have you ever heard of the Kewpee restaurant chain?

No one has apparently thought to trademark (or maintain the trademark to) Dagwood's--in reference to the insatiably hungry husband with one-button shirts and permanbent cowlicks in the Blondie comic strip--as the name of a restaurant, as there have been at least a few in the U.S. , none of them looking to be related to any other. Have you ever eaten at and/or gotten take-out from an establishment named Dagwood's?

Confusingly, perhaps, the Popeyes chicken restaraurant chain wasn't named for the sailor renowed for his bulging muscles and appetite for spinach. The chain derived its name from Gene Hackman's Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle character in the 1971 movie The French Connection. But in the its early days, Popeyes... the eateries...sponasored a show of Popeye cartoons on New Orleans TV; this precipitated a long-term licensing agreement for the character by the chicken chain, though it's no longer in effect. Have you ever...?

Looking at the menu of Gumby's Pizza, a chain existing in seven American states whose locations look to be mostly in college towns and prides itself on late hours for studous students (and those psychochemically altered, since they offer a Stoner Pie?), my appetite isn't sufficiently whetted for me to wish a location were near me But the flexible green fellow and his sidekick horse, Pokey, were among my favorite 'toon characters in my youth. And I'm tempted to buy one of Gumby's Pizza's "Legalize Marinara" T-shirts and, maybe ,wear ironically to a NORML rally. Have you ever been disinterested in patronizing a business named for a character--or something else you ilke?

I could have fudged on this survey's premise and also asked about Roy Rogers, the singing cowboy who was the suject of a comic book series wile he was making movies and later the namesake for a fast food chain, or Big Boy, the mascot for a restaurant chain featured in comic books given to kids who patronized its beaneries. But no! Can you think of any restaurants named for comic book/comic strip/cartooncharacters that existed before being the basis of a name for a place to eat/order out?